Russian President Outlaws Online Casino Poker24 Jan 2007 On the second to last day of the year, Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, signed a bill into law that will close slot machine halls and casinos across most of the country in a few short years. This new law will force these establishments, which have become a garish feature of the new landscape of Russia, into four legal gambling zones. In addition, this new law outlaws online casino gaming as well as online casino poker, and sets the minimum age to gamble at 18. Online casinos players residing in Russia are surely not going to be happy about this recent change in the law.
On December 27th, 2006, the bill moved through the Federation Council (upper parliament house) without opposition. The State Duma (lower parliament house) had already approved it on December 20th, 2006. The sites where the gambling zones are planned are now infrastructure-free wilderness. All are far from the capital, Moscow: the Altai Territory (southwest Siberia), the Kaliningrad Region (Russia’s exclave on the Baltic Sea), Primorye (Far East), and on the border of the Rostov Region and the Krasnodar Territory in the south of the country. These have nothing to do with online casino gaming, but they are the main focus of the anti-gambling law. Putin outlawed online casino gambling because he wishes to have his people living healthy and productive lives which are free of gambling addiction.
After July 1st, 2009, any gaming facility operating outside of the four approved gambling zones will be banned. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, casinos bloomed in Russia’s major cities and slot-machine halls have germinated throughout the country. Online casino gaming does not factor into these occurrences. Online casino fans will simply have to look elsewhere in order to gamble on the Internet.
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